Re: "xxx." or "xxx".

[Debbie Molinaro <debbiem -at- UCS -dot- NET>]

> Five technical writers, one office, two opinions.   When a sentence ends
with
> a word in quotation marks, do you put the punctuation (period or comma -
we
> agree on the other punctuation marks) inside the quotation marks or
outside
> the quotation marks?  The various guides that we checked all indicated
that
> 1a and 2a (below) are correct, but some of the writers swear that they
were
> taught to follow 1b and 2b.   What do you think?
>
> 1a.   "Tell me what you think," said Barb.
> 1b.   "Tell me what you think", said Barb.
>
> 2a.    Each fix is moved to the restricted area by a "gatekeeper."
> 2b.    Each fix is moved to the restricted area by a "gatekeeper".

According to Sister Pat (my Journalism teacher at Manhattan College), it
would be 1a and 2a. Example 1a always looked natural to me and I never had
a problem with it. Example 2a used to look strange, so I would rewrite
sentences so that a one-word quote wouldn't be at the end. Silly, eh?
Anyway, I'm over it now and use form 2a without any trauma.

I have noticed that people from countries using the Queen's English put the
punctuation outside, though.

Debbie


Debbie Molinaro
debbiem -at- ucs -dot- net

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